Some of you know that I’ve been working for a while on an advanced SEO suite. I am getting ready to officially launch the beta program and I would like to ask for your help with some of the details.

If you want to be the best at what you do, you need to be prepared to take some heavy criticism. When somebody critiques something you’ve done, you can’t get offended; instead you have to try and learn as much as possible from it.

With that in mind, I want to ask for your assistance improving our promotional video. Please watch it and use the comments section for your critiques. Don’t hold back any punches! I plan to take your valuable input back to the producers.

Revolutionary “Point and Click” SEO Software

RankSense is a revolutionary new SEO software suite that makes ranking your web pages highly within the major search engines easier than ever before — for the keywords and phrases most relevant to your business.

The video thumbnail picture reminded me of the Apple-PC parody. But when it began, it sounded like a text-to-speech program was talking. Maybe the music volume levels ran into the voice, I don't know, I find that the best ads communicate the words very crisp and clear.

It feels very much like a presentation and so the magic of an effective ad is lost… on me at least. The video effects were great, but I felt the segment ran on. It's not viral material, if that was what you were going for.

Firstly, I found it rather hard to watch till the end. You should most definitely get real voice overs for the finished thing (I don't know if the computer generated speech is just a prototype thing).

I agree with the comments above that you need to launch into benefits and features much much sooner. Having watched till 1 minute in, you haven't told me anything about the product. I think making it shorter overall will help.

I like the animations of the robot falling through the hole- perhaps worth emphasising these things and making them full screen?

More (full screen?) screenshots I think would help instill trust in the product. As you mention, there are a lot of dodgy pieces of software out there so you need to make people feel like this one is different.

Overall, I've watched the video and don't feel compelled to use the product.

Something else to think about – perhaps worth producing multiple videos for different markets, so make one for people new to seo and one for seo agencies. As an experienced seo this software isn't selling any benefits to me.

Maki – Thanks a lot for your critiques.
I am thinking about a shorter version of the video. Some people might want more and others (extremely busy like you ) prefer less.
I agree the video needs full screen grabs of the product (especially for the most important features) I already brought this up to the producers.
Dharmesh – Fixed. Thanks! Nice work on the Website Grader tool.
Richard – Thanks. Somebody already told me the same about the similarities with the Mac ads.
Somebody mentioned the problem with the music. I will ask them to lower the volume of the music to reduce the distraction.
As English is not my first language, I didn't notice the use of text-to-speech. I will bring that up.
In reality is not an ad, but more of a presentation. It is going to be included in the sales letter. I want to make it more enticing, though.
I have four more videos in production that are intended to be viral. They use humor to entice people to share them. I will use StumbleUpon Ads to test their effectiveness first.
Tom – Your critiques are very welcomed. Thanks for reinforcing the critiques about the length of the video and the text-to-speech problem.
This video is probably not the best for experts, so I like your idea of creating videos with specific segments in mind.
I already asked for full screen grabs of the product.
Thanks a lot for your comments and critiques. I am glad this blog is attracting the right crowd. I prefer friends that are transparent and honest than ones that always agree with you when in reality they don't.

The sound is the biggest problem in my opinion. It all sounds just a little muffled. Yes, the music is a bit distracting, but I think the voices would still be muffled even without the music. It probably could be a bit shorter, but I really think the sound quality is the biggest drawback at the moment.

Personally I like videos that get straight in and demo the product full screen… no frills… just a simple screen capture (sped up a little) with clear narration… no people… no sound affects… but I am always in a hurry!!

You could get one of those done very cheaply for people who just want to see quickly what it does.

I think that your (Hamlet) comment on it "not being aimed at experts" is even more reason to get in and demo the product. I think the target audience for this video (bloggers) will not get what its about… IMO you need to spell it out with screen shots and basic explanation…

It was interesting to read that someone else commented on the fact it took over a minute to get to the product…

I see this video as being more suited to a trade fair / exhibition stand than online use.

Jez has a good point. After watching the video, I don't reall y know what this piece of software does. Jez's idea will give people a good idea of what the software does and probably wont cost anything.

I think the beta I got hold of was a very early version with only partial features and I think some were disabled. It kept trying to update its self but failed to do so. If you are going to add that tool you mentioned a few posts back, the one that gets all/most the incoming links from Yahoo I think it would be a huge selling point. The problem is I don't know the best way to actually get all the links from Yahoo or the best way of getting around the 5000 query limit. It would also be good if this tool could go to the page to extract the link text and and check for no follow.

After you mentioned the Yahoo API, I used it in my most recent tool to keep me up to date with good budget domains ;). I noticed a possible flaw with the API that may let you do more than 5000 queries – sent by email.

Sounds like you have a great product ready to let loose. I look forward to seeing it in action.

About the video: The voice of the gentleman on the left had a little too much bass in it and to be honest the accent of the gentlemen on the right was a little hard to follow, especially with the music running in the background.

I would lose the two speakers and concentrat on the screen shots as this is the product your are trying to promote. I spent to much time looking at the two speakers thinking doesn't this guy own an iron??

You could possible introduce this with a womans voice or even a female doing the introduction who has a pleasant even voice then after a brief time with her fade to the screen shots.

The music was a little too much…. I think the music in the background is a good idea but a little too much going on…. maybe look at something a little slower and softer.

SO, I read about your software today, thought it looked like it might just be the ticket. The limit on keywords is a little bit of a concern, but I guess I could just use it to promote myself and not my clients. I downloaded it, and lo and behold, it appears I downloaded it a long time ago. I don't remember using it, so I guess I installed it then walked away. I am a little leery of SEO suites, but if I found one that was actually decent I would try it. Is there a way I could get a temporary license for it? Doesn't have to be for the full trial, just enough to run it against IBP and if I like it, I will buy it. If not I understand. Have a great day and thanks for the great blog.

First impression was they two guy have their hands on their waist like my mother was made at me when I was being told something I needed to do. Next it didn’t feel personal enough, I think you need to shot from the waist up and let the audience get personal with the host. Next the sound was a little too loud and it made it hard to hear the speakers. Sorry but you said "Don’t hold back any punches". Next about half way thru I just wanted the music to stop so I paused the video. It is just too long. On a positive note I did feel interested though so I think if you stick to the product and not try to be too fancy you can catch the viewer’s attention and keep it. anyways just my two sense. peace

Given the size of the video, the men should be zoomed on more. The sounds quality is average at best, so I couldn't focus on what they were saying. A little more excitement in their voices wuold be nice. Could probably be condensed into 2 minutes to maintain interest.

Took a quick look at the website. Looks good. I like the blatant acknowledgment that you cater for a wide variety of marketers. The prices are reasonable for this type of service.

Video is too long for a sales pitch on the web. Use clearer and more screenshots of what the product does. Lose the people from the video. Less music it's just plain irritating. Voice over quality needs to be improved and do you really need non stop talking.

The setup let's you expect a parody of Apple ads, and while the beginning was nice at the start (with the draggin of the features and such), it soon started to get on my nerves.

Music beat too loud, as others have said, cleary lipsynced presentation (if you already lie in your advertisement, what will you do to me in the final product?), bad BAD cutting together of different levels of sounds as well as different pieces of the video sound.

One can clearly hear that this was not done in one take, and the popping sounds are annoying.

This is just for the parts surrounding the real thing – the product.

I have no idea what the tool does (other than it has a white background from what I can try to see in the back), there are some nice little thingies running around in the video and that is it.

The website falls in a similar trap – the video on the site use the camtasia feature of zoom, totally loosing everybody when it is displayed. The customer leaves confused.

Hard to read text (not enough whitespace) and too small. No screenshots available – the first thing to look for on any given product before installing it. No information on what it needs to run.

Software is FOR FREEEE – but later it is said that you need to register for a monthly fee, bad combination.

Without having that tested, I would assume, the pricing is off too regarding the keywords.

Also 15 days seem a bit too short for me; this is not enough time to get comfortable and addicted to it.

The overview of the pricing for anual just lists big numbers, but does not show me what I save when going for the bigger plans.
Now, you will notice that nobody actually talked about the product itself so far. But running around your site I saw some interesting pieces which alone would make for mouth watering screenshots – if you only would put them up there.

Personally, I am missing to see if that software would be useful for me, as the selection for example with the search engines only include single entities – meaning most likely you are requesting the data directly for example from google.com / english which is irrelevant when it comes for example to run with German texts.

To be honest I really don’t know what to get out from this video . It does not feels like a promotional video . The two guys looks like have no interest on what they speak about ! the tall guy looks really stiff ! Both of them looks like they have been forced to do this ! No real passion ! If they really believe in the product (i.e one been a web developer and other been a prof blogger) should give little bit more enthusiastic !!! I am sure the product is really good! and build upon intelligent technology , but the video is hopeless …

It was hard to see the video as it was so small, but from what I could see the effects were really good, however as others have said the 2 people talking make the video boring. I would suggest you get Steve Bulmer to do your promotional video, I wonder If Bill would loan him to you

The video is a little too draggy.. I would cut out the first 30 seconds and start off with the features after a quick intro.

Maybe it might be better to use one person as well instead of two. And perhaps show a close-up of the program instead of putting it up between the two guys. Seeing the features up close can make it more enticing.

I'll cut out the last 30 seconds as well to make it more punchy. End with a simple call-to-action.